Luxembourg-based Altice Group, which is controlled by French telecoms entrepreneur Patrick Drahi, plans to raise around EUR750 million (USD1.02 billion) through its initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reports. Around 20%-25% of the company’s shares will be sold, with the stock set to begin trading on the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam in roughly four weeks’ time. Speaking on a conference call, CEO Dexter Goei added that Altice has identified at least ten potential acquisition targets to bolster its market positions or expand into new regions. With reference to pan-European cableco Liberty Global, Goei commented: ‘We are the Liberty Global of the smaller telecoms opportunities today. One of the reasons we’re going to the capital markets is we’d like to be able to do larger operations’.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, 2013 witnessed a flurry of M&A activity from the Altice Group, as the company endeavoured to aggressively grow its international footprint. The company struck takeover deals for Oni Communications (Portugal, June 2013); Outremer Telecom (French overseas territories, July 2013); Mobius/IZI (Reunion, October 2013); and Tricom and Orange Dominicana (both Dominican Republic, November 2013).